Notes on Productivity Home Page

In April, David Allen and I presented two webinars on Getting Things Done with Lotus Notes. We were pleased to have close to 1500 people participate and we received over 200 audience questions during the presentations.

I've decided to launch a podcast series, also called, "Getting Things Done with Lotus Notes." To kick it off, David and I recorded a series of episodes to answer those 200 audience questions (which were impossible to answer during the live webinar broadcast due to sheer volume).

Subscribe to the special podcast feed so that you don't miss upcoming episodes!

With the recent discussions about Apps and how consumers want the freedom to find, evaluate, and purchase Apps for their Smartphones, I wonder how many users are able download and use a productivity application and how many have policies that prevent them from doing so.

If you found a productivity application for your mobile device that was proven to increase your performance, would you: a) be allowed to install it? b) encounter resistance (or refusal) from IT to allow you to install it? c) make a business case to management for why this App should be allowed?

Please take a moment and vote in one of the two quick polls below, then scroll down to share your comments.

Update: The survey is now closed. View the results below

I'm not asking whether you think Smartphones connected to enterprise systems should be locked down or not - there are many valid arguments for both sides of that discussion. What I most want to know is what the current climate is like when it comes to productivity applications on mobile devices and what organizations are doing to encourage/permit or discourage/restrict users from downloading and using productivity applications on their mobile devices.

Update: I split the question into two separate polls because otherwise the results could be skewed in favor of the iPhone/Android as these devices are often unmanaged/uncontrolled in the enterprise.

This weekend, I was reading the comments in a discussion thread on Engadget about RIM's BlackBerry offering. Many commenters were quick to showcase their stupidity and inability to spell while blasting every aspect of the BlackBerry in order to show how much they hated RIM and how badly they wanted an iPhone or Android.

Since I'm working on productivity solutions for all three, I was trying to read between the lines of the comments to see if there were any valid arguments that I could learn from. Among the large volume of useless drivel attempting to pass for comments, one commenter had this to say:

His concise statement summed up much of what many in the discussion thread were trying to communicate.

Do you agree? Is it all about the Apps?

If so, what are the implications for Lotus Notes in light of recent discussions around an App Catalog or an App store for Lotus Notes?